Robert's Snow: Anna Alter

Our latest illustrator in the Robert’s Snow Blogging for a Cure is the amazing Anna Alter. Robert’s Snow is having the snowflake auction to raise money for cancer research. Here’s where you can read more about it. And here's the gorgeous snowflake Anna’s painted for the auction:

Totally beautiful, right? And you’re probably curious about how it came together. Well, lucky for you, Anna has given us a series of photos depicting her creative process with this snowflake:

Very, very cool to get a little inside scoop on how this snowflake came into being!

Anna was also generous enough to answer some questions for us:

What inspired your snowflake design?

Since Grace and Robert (who began this project) have been friends of mine for a long time, it seemed appropriate to paint a scene about friendship on my snowflake. I started out drawing a cat and a fox playing in the snow, throwing snowballs at each other, with other characters sledding in the background. The more I painted, the more I got interested in the little figures sledding in the distance… so I decided to make the back side a close-up of their trip down the hill. When Robert passed I wanted the snowflake to have a homage to him, so I added a small French bulldog to the characters on the sled, Robert’s favorite dog.

How did you get involved in Robert’s Snow?

Grace and I went to college together, and started working as illustrators around the same time. Over the years we grew as friends and artists, she has been a constant source of support and inspiration. When Robert got sick, she was determined to do something positive in the face of a very difficult personal struggle… thus Robert’s Snow was born! The project is her brainchild, with her friends pitching in different ways to help carry it along. Those of us who were illustrators started by making snowflakes, but the more the project grew, the more there was to do. During the last auction I was one of the people who received the snowflakes, and put them up on the web site… it was amazing unwrapping the packages each day, getting to see so many little pieces of original art, each totally unique. Every part of working on this project has been really rewarding.

What's your favorite thing about your job?

Painting gives me more satisfaction than anything else that I do. Its not always fun in the way people think a career in children’s books must be- it can be frustrating and tedious and I am often walking around in a haze obsessed with some bit of minutia, like what kind of pattern to paint on a shirt. But there is nothing like it- sitting down to a blank piece of paper and making a world. Spending the afternoon considering shades of green. Letting a character find its own personality under your brush.

Have you ever illustrated a book that you didn't love?

Not so far, thankfully! I’ve been lucky to work with very gifted writers. I’m not just saying that, somehow my editors seem to always send me manuscripts that in some way appeal to my sensibility. In particular, I think Patrick Jennings is a really great writer. But then again, I write most of my projects myself, so I am not faced with someone else’s manuscript very often.

Do you have a favorite drawing or sketch that you did when you were a kid?

One that I always show kids when I do school visits is a painting of Peter Rabbit I made when I was about 6. I like it because I can remember how proud I was, and how much I loved that book. I remember relishing all the tiny details of the illustrations, going over them again and again. I wanted to live in that world.

What other children's book artists do you admire?

There are many! Besides my Blue Rose Girls friends and other colleagues I’ve met along the way, I really love Ora Eitan, Lisbeth Zwerger, and Peter McCarty’s paintings.

What's your favorite guilty pleasure?

Hmm, that would have to be buying shoes! You just can’t have too many.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

“Dissatisfaction is a powerful creative force.”

Anna writes and illustrates books out of her home in Boston. Her personal and character driven stories aim to give kids a place to see themselves in the world. In addition to writing and illustrating, Anna teaches art classes to kids of all ages. Her original paintings are frequently shown in various venues around New England.

To bid on Anna’s snowflake, as well as see the other snowflakes up for auction, check out the Robert’s Snow Site.